1. Technical Field
This invention relates in general to systems that provide lighting and/or information to building occupants in the event of an emergency such as a smoke event, a fire, an earthquake, a security breach, and/or the presence of unsafe levels of hazardous gasses. The invention, more particularly, relates to systems and methods providing floor-level identification and illumination of the exit route to be used in the event of an emergency, especially as integrated with the alarm and security systems of hospitals, hotels, multi-family residences and other high occupancy building structures. The invention also relates to the materials, articles and processes used in such systems and methods, as well as to how and when to use the same.
2. Background Art
People tend to become overly confused and disoriented when they are in a building that is experiencing an emergency such as catching on fire, particularly in buildings such as hotels, hospitals or other institutions where the occupants stay in the buildings for such short periods of time that they are not very familiar with the best way to exit the building. During an emergency event, alarms are blaring, sprinklers are often spraying, the main lighting is often turned off, and hallways can be obliterated with smoke in just a few minutes. To top off the confusion factors, once smoke gets in a person's eyes and lungs, they are physically impaired, and they start panicking as their oxygen supply drops and disorientation sets in quickly as a result.
It helps that fire codes typically require low-voltage, DC-powered, lighted exit signs to help guide people to safety even when the building's main power is shut off so that firefighters or other emergency responders can safely cut through walls without risk of electrocution. It is even better when exit lighting systems are linked to smoke detectors or other nearby or remote fire alarm systems so that they are powered together and are automatically actuated in the event of a fire. Such signs and alarms, however, tend to be positioned relatively high—either hanging down from the ceiling or mounted high on a wall above the frame of the exit door. Unfortunately, the air near the ceiling is the first to fill with smoke. People trying to escape a structure fire tend to crouch low and even crawl on hands and knees to avoid the heat and find air near the floor while feeling their way down a smoke-filled hall. Hence, panicked people in a fire may have little chance of seeing the exit lights that are intended to guide them toward safety.
As a result, the occupants of a building or structure such as office buildings, night clubs, hotels, hospitals, and even simple residences, and the firefighters entering such structures to render aid, are at serious risk of quickly becoming confused and disoriented and then asphyxiated in smoke-filled hallways, even when code-compliant exit lighting systems are installed and fully functioning. Over 2,970 civilians died in structure fires in 2007 (one death every 153 minutes), many as a result of their inability to locate a safe exit from the structure in a timely manner. Horrifically, even the trained firefighters who enter a burning building to render aid are at risk. Indeed, more than a dozen firefighter lives are lost every year in the US because they become lost or disoriented in the burning structure and run out of air. Too many civilians' and firefighters' bodies are found within just a few feet of what could have been a safe exit or escape. Most victims of fire are found near a window or within a fifteen feet of an exterior door.
Analogous challenges are presented in virtually any type of disaster or emergency situation that requires immediate evacuation of a building structure, whether due to fire, flood or earthquake, or whether due to human threat such as a security breach, hazardous gas release, terrorist attack, bomb threat or the like.
Some have tried to overcome such challenges and problems by designing creative exit lighting systems, but their attempts have fallen far short of the ideal. Among those are the inventors of the following U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,794,373, 5,130,909, 5,343,375, 5,612,665, 5,755,016, 5,815,068, 6,025,773, 6,237,266, 6,646,545, 7,114,826, and 7,255,454.